It seems that perhaps the main reason why people believe the US has an energy revolution and/or independence on its hand is that they don't understand and/or care what for instance an annual 40% depletion rate means. True, more and more wells are drilled, but the pattern is that they deliver even less and deplete even faster than earlier wells

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Viewing through the data, it's doesn't even seem all too likely that there still will be a viable US shale industry by 2020. The predictions for the future of shale gas, whether they're accurate or not, have pushed domestic US gas prices so low that while the American economy enjoys a temporary windfall, profit margins for actually producing it have fallen so much it's hardly economically viable any longer. At the Bakken play, well over $1 billion worth of gas is simply flared off, and that's probably a lowball estimate. A waste? Absolutely. Polluting? You bet. But there's no profit in shale gas anymore.

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